Making a Difference for 240 Elementary Students

Posted on Jul 26, 2017

Four months ago, five representatives of the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill were guests of honor at the Rotary club of Ameca Mexico’s 50th-anniversary party. During that weekend trip, the five visited Lazaro Cardenas Elementary School which desperately needed a kitchen to serve the school’s 240 students. In May the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill’s Board of Directors approved a $4000 grant to support building a kitchen for the school. With additional support from the school’s PTA and the Rotary club in Ameca, the Rotarians in Ameca hired a local contractor in June. The project was completed quickly in July.

On very short notice, this past weekend Past President and the club’s World Community Service committee’s chair, Peter Anderson, flew to Mexico and participated in the kitchen’s dedication and ribbon cutting.

Before leaving Ameca on Sunday, Peter was given a final report by the Ameca treasurer, documenting the construction process and providing an accounting - indicating that the project came in under budget by a few pesos.

Because of the project, 240 students will now be able to receive a free hot meal prepared daily by PTA members. For some of the students, the meals served at the school will be their only hot meal of the day and for others it will be the only meal they regularly eat. For many students, this is a powerful incentive to attend school.

In addition to our support of the kitchen, Peter also brought with him on the trip around 100 children’s reading books in Spanish that were donated to us by the Morgan Hill Library. The books were given to the Ameca Rotarians to distribute to their local schools.

As they frequently do, the Amecans filled the empty suitcase which previously held the books Peter brought to Mexico with Mexican sweets for our club to enjoy. The sweets were given to us by one of their Rotarians whose business is making guava and tamarind candies which are sold all over Mexico and exported to the US. Ameca’s new Rotary president, Israel Cornejo, also sent a ‘celebratory’ bottle of tequila his counterpart in Morgan Hill, Randy Toch.

If you are interested in learning more about the trip or the work of our World Community Service committee, please contact Peter at pacificgeo@aol.com.